Candidate with 1 mark bags PG medical seat in Hyderabad

The candidate, All India Rank of 2,29,981, who scored just one mark, was allotted an MS Orthopaedics seat at Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad under the ST category.

Hyderabad: Twenty candidates who scored between one and 99 marks out of 800 in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) have been allotted postgraduate medical seats across Telangana, counselling data released by the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) shows, reviving concerns over the sharply lowered qualifying cut-offs this year.

The most striking case: a candidate with an All India Rank of 2,29,981, who scored just one mark, was allotted an MS Orthopaedics seat at Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad under the ST category. The seat came through the Competent Authority Quota mop-up round for the 2025-26 session, per KNRUHS documents dated February 9.

Of the 20 low-score allotments, at least 12 went to government medical colleges, including some of the state’s premier institutions, undercutting the assumption that rock-bottom scores would only find takers in private colleges.

According to TSF, Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad alone accounted for six such admissions. A candidate with 12 marks got MD Forensic Medicine there under the SC category, and one with 24 marks secured MD Pathology at the same college. Osmania’s other low-score allotments spanned Orthopaedics, Anaesthesia and General Surgery, with scores between 12 and 99.

Gandhi Medical College in Secunderabad admitted three candidates from this group: 59 marks for MD Radiodiagnosis, 74 marks for MD Pharmacology, and 91 marks for MS Orthopaedics. At Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal, a candidate with 32 marks secured MD Pathology under the ST category. Sub-100 scores also translated into seats in paediatrics and respiratory medicine at other colleges statewide.

These allotments trace back to a decision by the Union health ministry and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) earlier this year to lower the NEET-PG qualifying percentile, intended to fill thousands of vacant postgraduate seats nationally. The revised criteria let in candidates with extremely low scores, and in some reserved categories, even negative ones.

Despite criticism over the eroding standards of postgraduate medical education, authorities have stood by the lowered cut-off, arguing it was the only way to stop postgraduate seats from lying vacant.